Our KPIs give the Board and management a clear sense of where we are and where we need to improve.
Measuring the success of our strategy
We monitor the success of our strategy through operational, financial and non-financial key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs give us a crucial insight into our business performance and the progress being made towards our strategic intent.
Our selected KPIs help us to communicate the Group’s strategy across all levels of the organisation and form part of our governance and performance management processes.
Ensuring our KPIs are meaningful and responsive
We review our KPIs regularly to ensure that they’re aligned with our strategy and organisational goals.
In 2024/25, we added ‘lease-adjusted leverage’ to our financial KPIs to reflect the Group’s financial market debt position, improve comparability between reporting periods and reduce volatility associated with lease accounting under IFRS 16. We also adjusted two operational KPIs: ‘total sites and fibre (km)’ replaces ‘total sites and data capacity’ to better reflect our network expansion. ‘Customer base and smartphone penetration’ replaces ‘customer base and net additions’ as smartphone penetration is a key measure of our progress in driving access to data services.
Furthermore, our non-financial performance KPIs linked to our sustainability strategy are scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, energy consumption, population coverage and gender balance.
Linkage with remuneration
We review our remuneration-linked KPIs every year to ensure these are relevant to our business strategy. Our remuneration targets are linked to selected financial and operational KPIs. As part of our long-term incentive scheme, we also benchmark our total shareholder return performance with a peer group of companies.
Financial KPIs
GAAP KPIs
Revenue
$4,955m
constant currency +21.1%
reported currency (0.5%)
$4,979m in 2023/24
Operating profit*
$1,457m
(11.1%)
$1,640m (6.7%) in 2023/24
Profit/(loss) after tax*
$328m
+468.2%
$(89)m (111.9%) in 2023/24
Net cash generated from operating activities*
$2,266m
+0.3%
$2,259m in 2023/24
Basic earnings per share*
6.0 cents
+235.1%
(4.4) cents (124.9%) in 2023/24
APM KPIs
Underlying EBITDA and margin*
$2,304m
constant currency +18.1%
reported currency (5.1%)
margin 46.5%
$2,428m, margin 48.8% in 2023/24
Operating free cash flow*
$1,634m
(3.4%)
$1,691m (7.4%) in 2023/24
Leverage
2.3x
1.4x in 2023/24
Lease-adjusted leverage
1.0x
0.7x in 2023/24
Return on capital employed
19.6%
23.0% in 2023/24
* Growth percentage and underlying EBITDA margin are in reported currency
Operational KPIs – mobile services
Total sites and fibre (km)
Performance
During the reporting year, we deployed around 2,600 sites, reaching 37,100+ sites in total as of 31 March 2025. We added 3,300+ sites on 4G and now 97%+ of our total sites are enabled for 4G. 5G is operational across five markets, with around 1,500 sites deployed. We also added around 3,300 km of fibre (reaching 78,714 km of fibre as of 31 March 2025).
Customer base and smartphone penetration
Performance
In reported currency, data revenue grew by 4.0% to $1,804m with data ARPU declining from $2.4 to $2.2 in the current period. The low growth in reported data revenues and the decline in reported currency ARPU were driven by currency devaluation.
In constant currency, data revenue grew by 30.5%, led by both customer base growth of 14.1% and data ARPU growth of 15.4%. The data ARPU growth was driven by an increase in data usage per customer per month mainly due to our higher 4G customer base and expansion of our 4G network.
Voice traffic and usage per customer
Performance
Our voice traffic grew by 13.0% to 570 billion minutes during the year, driven by customer base growth of 8.7% and an increase in voice usage per customer by 4.9% to 300 minutes per customer per month. Our continued investment in sales and distribution infrastructure as well as network coverage, along with sustained demand for voice services, contributed to the growth in voice traffic. The growth of voice usage per customer was mainly contributed by Nigeria.
Voice revenue and voice ARPU
Performance
In reported currency, voice revenue declined by 9.8% to $1,964m with voice ARPU declining from $1.2 to $1.1 in the current period due to currency devaluation (primarily, the devaluation of the Nigerian naira, Malawian kwacha and Zambian kwacha).
In constant currency, voice revenue grew by 10.6%, driven by both customer base growth of 8.7% and voice ARPU growth of 2.7%, respectively. The voice ARPU growth was led by an increase in voice usage per customer of 4.9%.
Data customers, 4G data customers and penetration
Performance
Our data customer base increased by 14.1% to 73.4 million as of 31 March 2025 and now comprises 44.2% of our total customer base. Data customer base growth was driven by an expansion of our data network, an increase in network data capacity and increased number of smartphones on our network. The 4G smartphone customer base reached 50.1 million, a growth of 32.9%, and contributes 68.3% of our total data customer base. Out of the total smartphones, 83.1% are 4G-enabled smartphones (compared with 75.1% in the prior period).
Data usage, 4G data usage and data usage per customer
Performance
Total data usage increased by 47.5% to 5,667 million GBs led by both customer base growth of 14.1% and an increase in data usage per customer of 30.4%. During the reporting period, 4G smartphone data usage contributed to 91.1% of total data usage. Data usage per customer increased to 7.0 GB per month (up from 5.4 GB per customer per month) while 4G smartphone data usage per customer increased to 9.9 GB per month (from 8.8 GB per month). The increase in data usage per customer was led by an increase in smartphone penetration, the increased density of our 4G network and higher adoption of data bundles (smartphone bundle penetration increased by 4.2%).
Data revenue and data ARPU
Performance
In reported currency, data revenue grew by 4.0% to $1,804m with data ARPU declining from $2.4 to $2.2 in the current period. The low growth in reported data revenues and the decline in reported currency ARPU were driven by currency devaluation.
In constant currency, data revenue grew by 30.5%, led by both customer base growth of 14.1% and data ARPU growth of 15.4%. The data ARPU growth was driven by an increase in data usage per customer per month mainly due to our higher 4G customer base and expansion of our 4G network.
Mobile services revenue and ARPU
Performance
In reported currency, mobile services revenue declined by 3.3% to $4,193m and mobile services ARPU declined from $2.5 to $2.2 due to currency devaluation (primarily, the devaluation of the Nigerian naira, Malawian kwacha and Zambian kwacha).
In constant currency, mobile services revenue grew by 19.6%, with growth being recorded across all regions and services: Nigeria up by 36.4%, East Africa by 18.8% and Francophone Africa by 7.9%, respectively. Mobile services revenue growth was driven by both voice and data services: voice revenue grew by 10.6% and data revenue grew by 30.5%, respectively. Mobile services ARPU was $2.2 per customer per month, up by 11.0% in constant currency.
Operational KPIs – mobile money
Mobile money customer base and penetration
Performance
Our mobile money customer base grew by 17.3% to 44.6 million as of 31 March 2025, representing 26.8% of our total customer base. This growth was largely driven by expansion of our distribution infrastructure and merchant ecosystem. Our enhanced distribution channel ensures availability of mobile money float across our footprint.
In Nigeria, the company remained focused on customer acquisition throughout the year, with 1.7 million active customers registered for mobile money services in Nigeria as of 31 March 2025.
Mobile money transaction value and transaction value per customer
Performance
Our mobile money transaction value grew by 32.0% to over $136bn in reported currency.
The transaction value per customer reached $273 per month, an increase of 13.3% in constant currency.
While the overall cash in and cash out transaction value increased from $42bn last year to $49bn in 2024/25, its contribution to overall transaction value reduced from 37.4% to 35.8% given the uptake of more advanced services across the ecosystem.
Mobile money agents
Performance
The number of active agents in our network increased by 322,000, reaching a total of 1.7 million, driven by an improved digitized agent onboarding process. By enhancing our distribution, we ensure that our services are accessible to a wider audience, thereby, strengthening our market presence and customer reach.
Mobile money revenue and ARPU
Performance
Mobile money revenue reached $994m, an increase of 29.9% in constant currency (18.7% in reported currency) driven by 31.9% growth in East Africa and 22.2% in Francophone Africa, respectively.
The transaction value per customer grew by 13.3%, resulting in mobile money ARPU growth of 11.4%.
Mobile money revenue now accounts for 20.1% of total Group revenue (up from 16.8% last year)1.
1 Mobile money contribution is based upon mobile money revenue including cross-charge revenue from mobile services which gets eliminated upon consolidation.
Operational KPIs (consolidated) – mobile services and mobile money
Total Group revenue and ARPU
Performance
In reported currency, total revenue declined by 0.5% to $4,955m and ARPU declined from $2.8 to $2.6 due to currency devaluation (primarily, devaluation of the Nigerian naira, Malawian kwacha and Zambian kwacha).
In constant currency, total revenues increased by 21.1%, driven by both customer base growth of 8.7% and ARPU growth of 12.4%. There was growth across all reporting segments: mobile services revenue in Nigeria grew by 36.4%, in East Africa by 18.8% and in Francophone Africa by 7.9%, respectively. Mobile money revenue grew by 29.9%, driven by 31.9% growth in East Africa and 22.2% in Francophone Africa.
Growth percentages in KPIs are in constant currency unless specified. ARPU (CC) is in 2024/25 constant currency for all reported periods
